In Business
The Changing Shape of Accountancy Careers – HRM Survey 2010
By Rachel O'Sullivan
Jun 21, 2010 - 9:16:27 AM

As this survey reports, a significant number of Accountants currently feel under significant pressure and are working longer hours than in previous years. Perhaps it’s because of this and a need for change, that while a vast majority of Accountants expect to still be within the profession in five years time, an equal majority expect to change their employer within the next two years.
 
Few of us can remember a time when there has ever been so much pressure to change organisational priorities so dramatically. The Finance function in most organisations has become the centre of operational decision making, in many cases having to drive through difficult challenges and unpopular outcomes.

From our own experience and that of the clients and executives with whom we work, it seems these organisational changes have prompted a re-definition of the accountant’s role. Not just in terms of tasks, but also in influence across the wider business.

At the same time, while executives across all functions are well aware of the challenges their organisations face, few have spent so much time staring into the byss in the way company accountants, financial controllers and professional advisors have been forced to do.
 
Daily as they manage scarce cash, review budgets, revise forecasts or prepare monthly reports of often poor results, there is little reprieve from the gloom. Few companies have escaped the need to make cuts in headcount and compensation and often the Finance function is perceived as the driver of these difficult decisions and those that involve curtailment of activities or expenditure.

As this survey reports, a significant number of Accountants currently feel under significant pressure and are working longer hours than in previous years. Perhaps it’s because of this and a need for change, that while a vast majority of Accountants expect to still be within the profession in five years time, an equal majority expect to change their employer within the next two years.

Strong > Survey Highlights

1. Over 90% of Accountants feel they are under too much pressure at work. 84% are working long hours, with a fifth of respondents describing this as a being a constant factor of their jobs.
2. 78% of Accountants have had their workload increased in the last twelve months. Nearly 70% of respondents have taken on new non-financial responsibilities since the downturn.
3. Over 70% of Accountants expect to change jobs within the next two years. Over two thirds have recently considered a change.
4. 63% of Accountants have seen headcount reduction in their departments in the last twelve months.
5. 85% of Accountants say key stakeholders are taking more interest in the data they produce, but nearly 60% of respondents feel their organisations are not acting fast enough to it.

Summary

Whether driven by a natural professional evolution or the stark financial challenges that most organisations currently face, the role of the Accountant is certainly changing. Indeed for many, it changed some time ago, as the traditional front office/back office lines of demarcation have blurred and progressive organisations have built financial analysis into all key commercial decisions.

It is interesting to note here, that so many Accountants see developing strategic management abilities as a priority and also to see note the high number of additional functions, Accountants have been asked to undertake. It’s not surprising that in challenging economic times, the role of the Accountant has become more central. The pattern suggests that while today many CEO’s and MD’s are from accountancy backgrounds, many more in the future will be groomed from financial career channels for senior strategic leadership roles. Highly appropriate perhaps, given the extraordinary mistakes many organisations have made in the recent past and are now working hard to recover from.

Survey Data

A total of 1,471 qualified Accountants participated in the survey across all accountancy bodies, with a wide range of post qualification experience levels and from a mixture of Practice (4.1%), Financial Services (13.6%), Commerce & Industry
(74.1%) and Public Sector organisations (8.2%).

A total of 1,471 Accountants participated in the survey with the following distribution of professional qualification:

• Chartered Accountants Ireland: 36.3%
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants: 19.9%
• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants: 26%
• Certified Public Accountants: 11.6%
• Others: 6.2%

While in general we report their responses as a total, 71.4% of respondants were male with 28.6% female. The distribution of post-qualification experience amongst respondents is as follows:

• Up to two years PQE 11%
• Up to four years PQE 6.2%
• Up to six years PQE 9.6%
• Up to eight years PQE 11%
• Up to ten years PQE 15.1%
• Up to fifteen years PQE 21.2%
• Up to twenty years PQE 16.3%
• Up to twenty five years PQE 7.5%
• Thirty years or more PQE 2.1%

Rachel O'Sullivan
Marketing
HRM
47 Fitzwilliam Square
Dublin 2
Co. Dublin, Ireland
(+353 1) 6321800
Visit Website: http://www.hrm.ieContact
Contact Email: info@hrm.ie